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Friday, 2 September 2016

What Does Brexit Mean for the Left?

The vast majority of the broad political left in the UK
campaigned to remain in the European Union (EU), at the referendum on the UK’s
membership in June this year. The vote, of course, went the other way, and now the country must decide on the precise terms of our exit from the organisation.

Some of the left are still in denial about the outcome, and
hopes to somehow avoid leaving the EU or at least water down the settlement
into a kind of ‘Brexit Lite’ status. I guess this is still just about possible,
but looks to be increasingly unlikely, as the new Prime Minister, Theresa May,
has apparently decided that the issue of immigration to the UK needs to be
addressed. It seems as though immigration will take president over remaining a
full member of the EU’s free trade single market.

It is highly unlikely that we can have our cake and eat it,
by staying in the single market and restricting immigration from EU states. So,
some on the left will fight tooth and nail to prevent Brexit happening and if it
does, offer a return to the EU either in a second referendum like Labour’s
Owen Smith has advocated or as a manifesto commitment at the next general
election, like the Lib Dems have said they will do.

There was a small element of the left that campaigned to
leave the EU, and presumably, they will be planning the steps towards what they
told us would be an opportunity for turning the UK into a socialist utopia. But
in the real world, that will have to be put off for now, at least.

We have a Tory government, and the Prime Minister appears to
be set on even not allowing Parliament a vote on our exit settlement if the rumours are
correct. May wants to use the Royal Prerogative to bring the settlement into
law and trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, to begin the formal process of
Brexit.

I think this is an unsatisfactory way to go about things in
the twenty first century, with the Royal Prerogative being barely used these
days for big important decisions. Tony Blair with Iraq and David Cameron with
Syria and Libya, two recent Prime Ministers, could have used the Royal
Prerogative to declare war, but didn’t. They allowed a vote in Parliament on
the issue.

The Royal Prerogative is a legacy of our rather vague and
imprecise constitution, and should be the first battle for the left with the
government. Not to oppose the settlement for its own sake, but to go through a
proper modern democratic process.

Of course, Scotland (and maybe even London) may yet go their
own way on Brexit, but for now, the left needs to get its act together across
the UK.

There may well be parts of the settlement that the left
should oppose, in Parliament and elsewhere, but this should be done within the
confines of UK sovereignty not as a tactic to stop Brexit.

For example, the left needs to ensure that British law (if
there is such a thing) at least offers the same, if not more, in terms of
employment and environmental protection, as we currently have under EU laws.

Then there is trade. It appears as though the TTIP trade
agreement between the US and EU is dead in the water, with strong opposition
from both France and Germany. The UK was the biggest cheer leader for TTIP in
the EU, so we must expect that the British government will want to enter into
this agreement unilaterally now. The same can be expected with the trade deal
with Canada (CETA).

The undemocratic nature of these pro-corporate deals is well
known to the left, so we are half way to opposing these agreements already. But it
must now become a priority.

The broader strategy that the Tory government may pursue, is
to make the UK into haven for tax dodging multi-national corporations, a sort
of super-sized Jersey, where corporation tax is minimal to non-existent. This
has been the agenda of the Tory right all along, and I’m sure they will seize
this opportunity to make it happen. The left must oppose this in every way we can,
or watch as the welfare state is fully dismantled before our eyes.

The left should also bring pressure to bear on the
government over funding issues. The pledged money for the NHS should be pursued
and the huge waste of money lavished on farming and land owning subsidies
should be stopped.

The details of exactly what the government plans to do, will
probably become clear early in the new year, but we can certainly anticipate a
lot of it from the outlines of what we have seen already. Let the battle
commence.

1 comment:

''There was a small element of the left that campaigned to leave the EU, and presumably, they will be planning the steps towards what they told us would be an opportunity for turning the UK into a socialist utopia. But in the real world, that will have to be put off for now, at least.''You can not let yourself so lightly dismissing the Lexit position so flippantly. Lexit the movie sets out the position very well, The question was for the left who advocated out. ''Can the EU be better reformed from its neo -liberal momentum better form with in or from out side''?. The question in the UK is basically the same , how can the UK be saved from its Neo Liberal momentum.

The Green Party in 2015 had a manifesto promise to have a referendum on the EU . Although campaigning for remaining in a reformed EU. I have seen no serious Left position on the EU that says the Institution does not need reforming from its deeply un democratic constitution. Caroline Lucas is a Member of DIEM 25 which argues that reform from within is likely to be more effective and this is a left position and one presented by Yanis Varafoukis a founder member of DIEM 25.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD_ecpIm60oFor me the bigger picture shopuld not ignore what the USA wants, clearly it did not want Brexit. Geo Politically one is tempted to form the view that if the US geo political interest is for the UK to be in the EU then for the vast majority of ordinary Britons out was the best possible outcome.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq72f81kkM4